Forsaken of Federal Hill

Start off with setting, who's there and a rough amount of time before our first hunt.

Rose woke before the sun to get her morning run in before her workout in the gym at the precinct. She was by no means a fitness buff. Actually, she didn't even look all that strong. The workout was for appearances. The running though, that was for her. It kept her calm. She rarely ever ran into any other people on the street. It was idyllic.

She arrived back at home, drained two water bottles and sighed contentedly. Rose heard the shower turn on. Rory was awake. "Hurry up!" she yelled, with a smile in her voice. "Other people need to shower, ya know!" Rose shook her head, laughed a little and started breakfast. They ate together when they could. Her job got in the way a lot, but they tried. They'd been living together for so long enough now that she had forgotten what it was to live alone. No, that's a lie. It was lonely; she remembered clearly. She had been so pleased when Rory had asked to move in with her. She'd hated their time apart. Now things felt right. Well, almost. Stop it! No darkness is allowed on this sunny morning, she thought determinedly. Breakfast was done and she sat down to eat. The water had turned off several minutes ago so she knew Rory would be joining her soon. She turned on the tv for background noise. Finally she heard footsteps and said, "Good morning! Food's ready."

Rory appeared from the hallway in his robe his hair wet and spikey from the shower. ” Bathroom’s free” he chimed as he strolled over to the kitchen where breakfast was set out. Rory poured himself some OJ and topped off his sister’s glass then sat down and went about the ritual of putting the right amount of butter on the toast and pepper on the eggs. A broad smile spread across his face as he bit into his buttered toast. ”What are you so happy about?” Rose asked.
Rory leaned forward conspiringly “Because it never ceases to please me that despite everything that has happened, I don’t smell like wet dog!” he took another bite of toast, and raised an eyebrow ”You on the other hand…” he trailed off.
Her look could have killed anyone else, but he blocked it with an extra cheesy sunny smile.
“Anything interesting happening at the office?” he asked.

Rose cleared her throat. "Well, if the shower had been free when I returned from my run..." He looked completely unapologetic and Rose stuck her tongue out at him. "We did just get a new case, actually." Rose gestured to the tv and turned up the sound. The news anchor was discussing a body that had been found yesterday. And how the police hadn't released any updates. "Yeah, that's us. We also think it isn't necessarily the first. Not much to go on yet, though. Too bad real life it isn't like those crime shows where everything gets wrapped up in a neat bow within 45 minutes. Enough about that though! How's work going?"

"You will be happy to know that I have successfully washed and folded over 37 towels yesterday, AND I redesigned the flyers for junior swim class. They are pretty much the same but I switched the fonts. I think Adobe Garamond has a certain appeal that Camria was lacking. He took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. "Who knows, what adventure tomorrow will bring, Jake was saying they needed a place to host the sex education for senior citizens seminar, and was hoping he could use the outreach. Apparently there is a rash of STDs making it around the rest homes *sigh*"

He ate a couple of bites.

It wasn't that Rory wasn't grateful for his job. Or for his sister. He had always been an over achiever, burning the candle at both ends and all that. When he fell about a year ago he fell hard. Quite frankly he didn't know what he would have done if Rosaline hadn't been there for him. A lot of people just brush it off "You're twins" like that should be the solution for everything. But it was different. He hadn't felt like part of a matched set. He had felt like he was irreparably broken, and that it would have been better to have just snuffed out rather than take her down with him.

He smiled at her.

None the less she was there for him. Now he was almost afraid. No he was afraid. Of disturbing the balance that had brought him back from the brink. Mentally he threw his shoulders back. Grow a pair Rory. The outreach is there to get people back on their feet. If he perpetually stayed there he would be cheating himself, her, and everything the pack had made that place to be.

I actually was wondering if I could drop you off at work today and use the car. I've been thinking it over and I want to drop off some job applications at some places. They are a bit far to the south, Silver Springs, and Elkridge and so forth, so I could hit them all in a day if I didn't have to take the bus.

Rose smiled at her brother. Little by little, he was starting to look like her Rory. He was coming back to her. The man who showed up on her doorstep looked like her brother, sounded like her brother. But he'd looked so broken she almost cried. Her Rory had never looked like that, so shattered by life. Of course she knew why but she'd been surprised by how much he'd let it affect him. For her part, when the initial shock wore off she had adapted quickly. "Of course you can!" She gestured at the dirty table and kitchen then said, "But I have to get to work soon and you know the rules! I cooked, you clean! So, move your ass!" She laughed and ran before he could react.

Figured she'd take the opportunity to dash before finishing her plate. ANYTHING to avoid doing dishes. He swore that was the only reason she even instituted the trade off rule - just so he didn't cook all the time and leave the dishes to her!

Rory heard the shower start to run.... it was a work day, so that gave him 10 minutes for the shower, 15 for the hair and makeup- scratch that- 5 for hair, she'd probably do the makeup in the car because he was driving, another 7 for getting dressed. 22 minutes total.

He loaded the dishwasher, and ran a coffee through the Keurig, ran his hair threw his hair and threw on the clothes he'd laid out last night, leaving the tie draped around his neck for later. He knocked out a havarti and basil sandwich for himself, and a turkey and swiss for Rose, not her favorite, but we were out of the fixings for that, but hey at least we still have some of the fancy mustard. Add a pink lady apple and viola lunch! Coffee and the rest of her breakfast for brunch he guessed.

Rose finished just before he did.
"I'll be just a sec, got to grab my resumes - coffee and lunch is on the counter- NO donuts"

"All right but hurry." Rose glanced at the table as she snapped her gun into its holster and followed that with the small handgun she kept on her ankle. It was uncomfortable but having it as a backup made her feel better. Then she saw her lunch ready to go, along with a to go cup of coffee. She took a sip of the hot drink and smiled. Rory made a damn good cup of coffee. The stuff at work was decent, not the mud that is supposed to be typical of precincts, but still it couldn't compete with her brother's. The rest of his words kicked in and she frowned. "Wait, no donuts?! You realize that you can't tell a cop no donuts, right? That's basically illegal. Why the hell do you think I'm running at 4am?" Rory stared at her with an exasperated look, copies of his resume in hand. "Ok, fine. But I'm not happy about it! Her serious expression dissolved into giggles and she said,"Sorry. It's fun to tease you, bro. No, but seriously thanks for the sandwich. And coffee. And the kitchen looks fantastic. You're hired!" She hurriedly threw her lunch in her bag and the rest of her breakfast followed, to be eaten later. "Don't worry about picking me up. I'll get a ride from Thomas."

Rory talked over his shoulder as they went out to the car.

"Ok. Just call if you're going to be late, I'm going to re-stock the fridge when I'm done dropping off the resumes and scheduling interviews. Since I have the time I was planning on making something nice. I'm feeling Indonesian tonight."

Rory didn't have many hobbies, cooking was one of the few outlets he allowed himself. His excuse to himself was it was just chemistry, but there was hart in it too.

Rory was right. Make-up in the car. He kept his mouth shut and let Rosaline's radio station fill the car.

Rory always thought it was kind of cool driving into the police parking lot. Everything moving with a purpose. The friendly cop on guard duty who was always professional and polite, in the you're allowed to be here you're fine, but if you weren't I would fill you with lead in the most polite way possible. Rory and Rosaline shared that passion for their careers, and the fact that their co-workers were just as passionate. Rory couldn't wait to get back to that.

Rose jumped out of the car, bag in hand. "Good luck on your job search, bro. Thanks for lunch. Drive carefully!" Rory waved a hand at her that meant stop worrying and headed off. She entered the precinct, nodding to colleagues and superiors as she passed them on her way to her desk. Thomas Price, her partner, was at his desk already. He nodded to her and continued talking with, judging from his side of the conversation, the morgue. She took her seat, booted up her computer and checked for messages in her voice mailbox. Rose was still relatively new at the detective position. When she'd been promoted, she was assigned to be Price's partner. She didn't know how he felt about being stuck with her. He's always been one to maintain professionalism, but the thought that he'd think her inexperience was holding him back made her strive to be better. It didn't hurt that he was incredible eye candy. He's just a few years older than her. His rugged features and sexy looks along with the way he gives this job his all gave him quite the reputation and, to be honest, it was intimidating to work with him at first. Price finally hung up and sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Was that the morgue? Do we have a problem?"

Thomas glanced over at his new partner then back to the pad of paper he had been tapping the tip of his pencil on while he had been on hold. It was always like that at the morgue, they were always grossly understaffed and busy. Price still didn't understand what always took them so long, it wasn't as if their clients were going anywhere. Except that old lady in Poland, she got up and walked out of one much to her husband’s surprise. Now that was an interesting case, how to press murder charges when your victim no longer is a victim.

With an exasperated sigh he hung up the phone and looked up at Detective O’Keefe. When she had been assigned to him all the guys in the office told him how lucky he was because she was so hot, but he hadn't felt that lucky. O’Keefe was beautiful but also raw and inexperienced. She also had a very perky personality that sometimes grated against his own worn one. He had no idea how someone who did what they did could remain so upbeat.

“So you remember that body they pulled out of the park two days ago?” He started in like he usually did when a case sparked his interest. “Well unlike what we thought at first, Mr. Carlos Sanchez was not torn apart by machinery. They found traces of organic matter and the marks are equivalent to those made by a large dog. Except this is a pretty fucking big dog, if you’ll excuse my language.”

Price slid the file across the desk and tapped a picture of an arm with bite marks across it. “Seven inches wide, that's a big bite. So we are looking for someone with well trained dogs, big ones.”

Rose mentally groaned. What the hell?! She stared at the bite marks, hoping like hell it wasn't put there by anyone from her pack. Big dogs, indeed. "Well, that's...not good. And being fished out of the lake means the saliva is impossible to analyze, right?" Rose did her best to sound disappointed instead of hopeful. "It doesn't sound like there's a whole lot to go on here. Are we going to start searching dog pounds next?" She kept her voice light and held her breath. Her mind raced as she wondered how to figure out who actually did it while keeping him, and everyone else in the precinct, as far from the truth as possible. "Oh, I just remembered! I need to call my brother, he is borrowing my car and there's this special thing that you have to do or else the whole thing freezes up and...yeah. Be right back!" Rose headed for a secluded area of the precinct and pulled out her cell. She quickly dialed TK's number and tapped her foot impatiently as it rang.
"Come on...pick up." She muttered, then cursed when it went to voicemail. "Hey, I need you to call me back asap. There's a...situation and it requires your special skills. It-just hurry up and call me back so we can meet!" Rose snapped before hanging up. Yeah, she handled that well. But it's not like she can ask the precinct's IT department to do a search on whether Sanchez had any connections to werewolves! She turned around and ran into Price who had been standing just a couple feet away. Rose quickly took a step back, glancing to where she can been standing and where he was. Hearing distance, even for a regular human! Shit. What the hell did he follow me for? And how much of that did he hear? Her thoughts immediately went to nowhere good. "Hey, what's up, Price? New lead?" Her voice was as casual as she could make it although maybe slightly too loud considering how close they were standing.

Price raised his eyebrows at his partner’s odd behavior, “Is everything alright? If you need a mechanic I know a pretty good one.” He didn’t know what was going on in O’Keefe’s life but ever since her brother had come back into town she seemed distracted and was always having to run off to call him or someone else. It was like the guy was always getting into trouble or something, even though Price’s impression he got the few times they met was that he as some sort of genius. Of course it was always the quiet types that ended up being serial killers or sickos.

Price could have smacked himself, what was he thinking? This was O’Keefe’s brother, there was no way he was some sort of lunatic. There probably just family drama they had to deal with as it was kind of a mystery why he moved back to Baltimore. She never really talked about it which he should have felt relieved that she was so secretive but instead it bothered him. With his other partner’s he’d kept professional and personal life very separate and they’d respected that. The only thing he could think was that every other person he had partnered with wanted to be bosom buddies except for her and it was odd because she seeming so outgoing and painfully cheery.

”I came over here to tell you that I think you’re on to something with the dog pound thing. We should go over to Animal Control and see if anyone has licenced any giant breed dogs. I know it’s a long shot, but if that fails they have a veterinarian on staff who might be able to give us a good idea what kind of dog, or animal we are looking for.”

"Oh." Rose had been joking. They were going to the dog pound? Just passing a dog getting a walk involved monitoring wind direction, sight and distance. Just thinking about it was exhausting. An entire building full of dogs, there's no way she could go. He'd know something was off when every single dog went nuts as soon as it smelled her. How do I extricate myself from my own damn idea? Thinking quickly, she said, "Why don't you do that? We'll cover more ground if I go talk to the people in his life about this dog angle. They might have information."

The smile that had come across Price’s face because he thought she would be excited that she helped in a lead faltered when she didn’t seem at all interested in following it up with him. “I thought you might want to stick together for this one. It was your clever idea after all, but I guess I could go over on my own if that’s what you want. Do you have any leads on people in his life that may know who could have wanted him dead?”

Right, leads. It was such an obvious response she couldn't believe she'd been so stupid not to see that coming. Her only thought had been out to get out of going to the dog pound. She quickly tried to remember what people he even had in his life. "Well, there's his coworkers. They might know something. Also, his wife might have some insight." She was being ridiculous and she knew it. The day had just started; they had plenty of time to do all three things together. "When we're done, we can meet up for lunch and put our information together. Sound good?"